Making their business voices heard

Minimum wage hike, expensive mandates are among leading concerns

Published 7:07 pm, Wednesday, April 17, 2013

Assemblymember Patricia Fahy talks with Chuck Steiner of the Schenectady Chamber and Stacey Fantauzzi of Socha Management Inc. in a meeting room across from Fahy's office in the LOB during Small Business Day at the Capitol on Wednesday, April 17, 2013 in Albany, N.Y. (Lori Van Buren / Times Union)

Small-business representatives pressed for a targeted set of items Wednesday at the Capitol.

They were feeling bruised by a minimum wage increase and other items in the state budget and hoped for some mandate relief before the session ends in June.

"We are trying very hard to ... listen to the issues that impact you," said Lt. Gov. Bob Duffy, one of three elected officials to address the group at a morning kickoff session of the annual event for small businesses.

Duffy was speaking to a room that included many disappointed by the increase in the minimum wage and the extension of a tax on energy use, both elements of the recently enacted budget.

He emphasized the work done by the Regional Economic Development Councils created by Gov. Andrew Cuomo as a new model for targeted state support of job creation.

He also noted that the governor and legislative leaders had worked to make the wage increase as painless as possible with a three-year roll-in, and tax credits to defray business costs.

"Hold us accountable — the executive branch, the Senate and the Assembly," Duffy offered as advice for the day's meetings. "Let us know what impacts you. Give us supportive data to help get decisions made."

"I still don't think New York is entirely open for business," said Assembly Republican Leader Brian Kolb, who said the state's regulatory atmosphere too often descends into a punitive "tax, fine and harass" cycle instead of one encouraging small business.

The business representatives were encouraged to talk about a slate of legislative goals that included amendments to the Wage Theft Prevention Act that would eliminate a requirement that employers provide workers with an annual record of their wages, which must be kept on file for six years.

Ken Pokalsky, vice president of government affairs for the Business Council, said his group had done a "back-of-the-envelope" calculation that this element of the law represented some $50 million in annual business costs statewide.

The lobby day also sought reforms to the much older state Scaffold Law, which its opponents argued had effectively turned into an "absolute liability standard" for elevation-related injuries on construction projects — even when a worker is intoxicated or violating safety standards — that jacked up building costs on badly needed projects like schools or the new Tappan Zee Bridge.

Also on the wish list: a bill that would allow for up-or-down legislative votes on an annual slate of mandates placed on localities, and the legalization of liquefied natural gas as an energy source.